Welcome to our guide for The Opera, the second Wing of Hearthstone‘s (Free) latest adventure, One Night in Karazhan. Instead of going with Disney references like Wing 1, Wing 2 goes for a more literary vibe with references to William Shakespeare’s, Grimm’s, and Frank Baum’s works. The three bosses are Julianne, Big Bad Wolf, and the Crone, and there are some fun ideas in this Wing, though nothing like the Chess from last week’s Wing. The encounters are pretty easy on Normal – probably easier than last week’s – but the Heroic ones are a different matter, especially The Crone one. Overall this is a fun Wing, and while most of the cards we are getting aren’t the strongest – outside the Legendary Barnes – any new cards are always welcome.
If you haven’t played the rest of the Adventure yet, check out our guides for the Prologue and Wing 1.
Wing 1, The Parlor, Normal and Heroic Guide
Julianne Normal and Heroic Boss Guide and Decklist
As you have probably already guessed, the encounter with the first boss, Julianne, has pretty loud echoes of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliette, but here we have Romulo and Julianne. And just as the two Verona lovers are together both in life and death, so they are in this Karazhan encounter. Julianne starts with 15 Health and a 4-mana Hero Power, True Love, that lets her summon Romulo if she doesn’t have him already. Romulo is a 4/2 minion that, appropriately, makes Julianne Immune while he is on the board. Julianne’s decks has minions like Bilefin Tidehunter, the 2-cost 3/2 Taunt Karazhan minion Pompous Thespian, Mirror Image, Shieldbearer, and in general plenty of Taunt minions. She will also play Magnataur Alpha – which with Betrayal helps her keep your board in check – Selfless Hero, and Temple Enforcer among others.
To beat this pretty easy encounter on Normal all you have to do is bring enough AOE removal to take out those taunt minions along with Romulo and then go face. With 15 health, she’s really easy to take down and have her, well, poison herself. I had success with a pretty basic Totem Shaman deck because most of the taunt minions are low health, so it was easy to clear the board. You could, of course, also bring a Mage deck because you can Fireball Julianne when you take out Romulo and Flamestrike the whole board when you need to get through. And with 2 Health, Romulo is very easy to take out with spells like Forgotten Torch, Frostbolt, Arcane Blast, and so on.
Heroic Julianne is, of course, more difficult to take down. She has 15 Health and 15 Armor and her Hero Power costs 0, which means she can summon a Romulo every turn. What that means for you is that you’ll need to be taking out Romulo AND dealing damage to Julianne on the same turn even during the early turns of the encounter. And because she doesn’t have to waste mana on summoning Romulo, you’ll be seeing more minions on the board than on Normal. So, make sure you can wipe the board easily and often and have strong minions on the board.
If you’re having a hard time beating Heroic Julianne, use Trump’s Shaman deck that you can check out on HearthHead:
1x Ancestral Knowledge
2x Ancestral Spirit
2x Lava Shock
1x Stormcrack
2x Elemental Destruction
2x Far Sight
2x Healing Wave
2x Hex
2x Lightning Storm
2x Flamewreathed Faceless
2x Earth Elemental
1x Hallazeal the Ascended
2x Thing from Below
2x Doomsayer
2x Faceless Shambler
1x Faceless Manipulator
2x Arcane Giant
Big Bad Wolf Normal and Heroic Guide
The Big Bad Wolf, the infamous villain since the times of Aesop, has 20 Health and his Hero Power is Trembling (Passive): Enemy minions are 1/1 and cost (1). So, as you can guess, your deck will consist of 1/1s even if you don’t want it to. Summoned minions, though, come with their original stats in Normal, so Spirit Wolf for instance will give you two 2/3 minions. And, keep in mind that Master of Evolution and Evolve will give you cards based on the original mana cost of your cards and they won’t turn into 1/1s.
The Wolf will play cards like On the Hunt, the 4/2 Weapon Big Bad Claws, Stranglethorn Tiger, but in general his minions aren’t that strong. You can easily take this Boss out by bringing spells that summon strong minions and plenty of buff and other spells, since they retain their original stats. Also, weapons will do their normal damage, and with the relative lack of taunt minions on his board, you should be able to do a lot of weapon damage.
The Heroic Big Bad Wolf has 15 Armor on top of the 20 Health and starts with three Kindly Grandmothers on the board. Since the Grandmothers are 1/1 but summon a 3/2 Big Bad Wolf, your task if much harder now because the Wolf’s board is much stronger than before. You can try silencing them, but you’ll have to have a good mulligan for that. He will also use Ferocious Roar often to get those minions even stronger, so very tricky indeed. His minions cost 1 but have their original stats.
You’ll need plenty of Taunt to protect your face, Deathrattle minions to make your board stickier and give yourself a chance to deal damage back when attacked, and cards like N’Zoth and Kel’Thuzad that strengthen your board even more. Master of Evolution and Evolve work just as in Normal. If you’re having a hard time taking the Heroic Big Bad Wolf out, use Noxious’ (quite expensive) Paladin deck that you can find here:
2x Steward of Darkshire
1x Tirion Fordring
2x Haunted Creeper
2x Nerubian Egg
1x Brann Bronzebeard
2x Hobgoblin
2x Mind Control Tech
2x Defender of Argus
2x Infested Tauren
2x Twilight Summoner
1x Hemet Nesingwary
1x Cairne Bloodhoof
1x Sylvanas Windrunner
1x Wobbling Runts
1x Dr. Boom
2x Stormwind Champion
1x Kel’Thuzad
1x Ragnaros the Firelord
1x Alexstrasza
1x Onyxia
1x N’Zoth, the Corruptor
The Crone Normal and Heroic Guide
The last Boss of Wing 2 is The Crone, and if you hadn’t figured out that it’s a Wizard of Oz-themed encounter, the Hero Power, Twister, should help see the inspiration. Twister costs 0 and deals 100 damage but can’t be used if Dorothee, a 0/10 minion on your side of the board, is alive. This mechanic is a lot like the Emperor Thaurissan encounter from Blackrock Mountain Adventure where you had to keep Moira Bronzebeard alive to avoid getting 30 damage to the face. The difference with BRM is that you get to have Dorothee on your side and you need to protect her from dying. And Dorothee gives minions to her left Charge and Minions to her right Taunt, a very fun new mechanic. The Crone plays cards like Knife Juggler, Mire Keeper, Abomination, Seal of Champion, Druid of the Saber, Flying Monkey – a 4/2 Charge minion, Silvermoon Guardian, Forbidden Ancient, Power of the Wild, and Wolfrider.
In general, you want to always keep Taunt minions on the board to avoid Charge minions damaging Dorothee. You don’t have to have actual Taunt minions in your deck because of Dorothee’s powers. So, bring minions with high health for her right side and high attack ones for her left side. The Crone doesn’t have much in terms of Taunt minions, so your Charge minions should hit face easily. If you want to protect Dorothee even more, give her Divine Shield or use Priest to heal her, although in Normal you won’t really need any of that.
The Heroic Crone has 50 Health and 15 Armor on top of that and loves to play Flame Jugglers. The Flying Monkeys are 5/2 now, which makes them even more powerful. When you first play her in Heroic, you’ll think that she’s going to be easy to take out, but then there’s a Twisting Nether that comes out and takes out all minions, including Dorothee, which results in a 100-damage Twister to your face (insert Kansas joke here). So, you’ll need to take this one out quickly. I found that playing Moroes on the right side of Dorothee was an easy way to keep pumping out 1/1 Taunt minions that gave me some protection. If you’re having a hard time taking the Crone out, use Trump’s Hunter deck that you can find over at HearthHead:
1x Explosive Trap
2x Quick shot
1x Snake Trap
1x Snipe
2x Kindly Grandmother
2x King’s Elekk
2x Eaglehorn Bow
2x Animal Companion
2x Kill Command
2x Cloaked Huntress
2x Houndmaster
2x Infested Wolf
2x Savannah Highmane
2x Call of the Wild
2x Saboteur
1x Loatheb
2x Stranglethorn Tiger
